Any and all exercise is beneficial to tennis, up to a point.
Worse is to lay on your deathbed, getting fed intravineously, and not moving.
Tune your workouts to your needs. Some people need quickness, some strength, some explosiveness, some endurance, we're all different and have differing needs.
For you specifically, I'd work on your first 3 steps, more explosivness first, then some endurance much latter.
Do boxing, basketball, karate, taichi, something that forces you to react quickly and decisively.

I came across a tennis science paper for high performance player development from the USTA some years ago on this very subject. I posted links to it in several threads in the past few years. It indicated that an elite singles player remained in the aerobic training zone for most of a match. About 40-60% of their energy needs comes from the aerobic system while the rest comes from 2 different anaerobic systems.
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I came across a tennis science paper for high performance player development from the USTA some years ago on this very subject. I posted links to it in several threads in the past few years. It indicated that an elite singles player remained in the aerobic training zone for most of a match. About 40-60% of their energy needs comes from the aerobic system while the rest comes from 2 different anaerobic systems.
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Thanks for digging that up. There was a couple of documents that I recall finding -- this looks like one of them. Page 40 of the pdf file is really page 32 of the manual according to the index. The last page of the Physiology section mentions that the player remains in the aerobic training range most pf the time. However, tennis is never 100% aerobic.

You can do aerobic exercise that incorporates tennis training if you do shadow swinging with a racket at the same time. When I don't have time to get to the courts, I do this in a small yard. I set my countdown timer and then do a pattern of split steps footwork and swings followed by rest periods. Of course, I do this barefoot.

But if you aren't squatting 2.5x your body weight you really shouldn't be playing tennis, it just isn't safe.:twisted:

yes, LeeD, I am doing some plyometrics to increase my first step reaction. but I also want to lose some weight and I used to believe the best approach is aerobic exercises. the problem is I can't manage to spend too much time on workouts. since I am doing plyometrics and streching, it's difficult to squeeze in any more.
I just hope HIIT can also help me lose weight, then I can totally forget about aerobics and put my time into good use.

... but I also want to lose some weight and I used to believe the best approach is aerobic exercises...

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Cardio exercise, whether it aerobic or interval-type anaerobic (like HIIT), can burn a fair amount of calories. However, increasing muscle mass might actually be the best way to increase BMR to burn more fat/calories in the long run.